MUNCIE, Ind. - - Ball State women’s volleyball head coach Steve Shondell announced the team’s 29-match regular season schedule for the 2014 season, which is highlighted by a match at 2013 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball National Championship runner-up Wisconsin.

The Cardinals open the 2014 campaign by hosting the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge (Aug. 29-30), before traveling to Wyoming (Sept. 5-6), Wisconsin (Sept. 12-13) and VCU (Sept. 19-20) for pre-conference tournaments.

“We are excited about facing perhaps the toughest schedule in my tenure at Ball State,” Shondell said. “Although we lost five outstanding seniors from last season’s team, we look to continue to climb the collegiate volleyball mountain. We will do so without a senior on our roster this year. Our schedule is full of tough opponents which will have us battle-tested entering league play. In addition, we are excited to have the opportunity to compete against the 2013 national runner-up Wisconsin, which is coached by Ball State graduate Kelly Sheffield.”

Ball State will also travel to IPFW (Sept. 17) for its lone mid-week match, before opening its 16-game MAC slate with road matches at Western Michigan (Sept. 26) and Northern Illinois (Sept. 27). During league play, the Cardinals will play home-and-home matches versus each of the other five MAC West Division programs, while playing each MAC East Division squad once.

Of its six cross-divisional matches, the Cardinals will host defending regular season and tournament champion Ohio (Oct. 17), as well as Kent State (Oct. 18) and Akron (Nov. 15). Ball State will travel to MAC East Division opponents Buffalo (Oct. 11), Miami (Oct. 24) and Bowling Green (Oct. 25).

“The Mid-American Conference will once again be one of the marquee leagues in the nation and there will be no easy wins at home or on the road,” Shondell said. “Both the MAC West and the MAC East will be great races to the finish line and are wide open in 2014.”

The 2014 MAC Tournament runs Nov. 21-23 and will be played in Athens, Ohio, as the league has moved to a new tournament hosting process which sees the previous year’s regular season champion hosting the eight-team event.

The winner of the conference tournament will earn the league’s automatic berth into the 34th Annual NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship which begins Friday, Dec. 5 at campus sites and concludes with the championship match Saturday, Dec. 20 at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Okla.

For the most up-to-date news on Ball State women’s volleyball, follow @bsuathletics, @BallStateWVB and @SteveShondell on Twitter.